Kinetic Sculptures Aren't Just for Adults

by Amy

When I was designing my son's nursery last year I knew that I wanted to include one of my Dad's pieces in the room. I thought the soft clicking would add some great white noise to the space. I had two pieces already. I had Nova hanging in the dining room and Pulsar was in a box in storage until I figured out where to put it. (We have been doing a lot of construction on the house over the past three years.) I really liked Pulsar for the space for two reasons: 1) It runs longer than Nova and 2) the fabric backer matched the color scheme I was planning for the room.

I'm really happy with how it looks in the room. We wind it up for Taylor for naptime and bedtime. He loves to watch and listen to it as he drifts off to sleep.

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More kinetic sounds...

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Writing about my "Chime Carillon" kinetic sculpture has me thinking about kinetic sculpture sounds. My current favorite is the very large sculpture Falling Water that is in our living room. I like the motion of this sculpture but after living with it for a while I think I like the sound it makes even better than the motion. Each of the 5 wheels makes a soft clicking sound and because each wheel moves at a slightly different speed the pattern of clicks is constantly shifting. It's hard to describe, sort of like a babbling brook or a soft rain but without the "wet" feel.

In this video I placed the camera very close to the sculpture to try and record the soft sounds it makes. When listening to it keep in mind that in a silent room these sounds can barely be heard from 20 feet away.

Music and Motion - Chime Carillon

In early 1987 I showed my work at the Baltimore ACC show. By chance we were located near Woodstock Percussion and Gary Kvistad. I checked back in my journal to find out exactly what year this took place in and found this quote,

" I got a couple of good ideas at the show. The most interesting is that of trying to make a sculpture using the chime tubes from the booth next to us, Woodstock Percussion. I spent all week listening to them and I thing a nice, gentle "Chime Machine" can be designed."

I spent about a year playing with the idea and in 1988 introduced Chime Carillon. It was a challenging piece. I wanted the mechanism to ring the chime tubes gently and in random arrangements but I also wanted the sculpture to have enough motion to be visually interesting.

I sold out the edition long ago but kept the initial prototype piece up in my studio gallery because it was such a rewarding design challenge and I still like the sounds it makes. It never fails to get a good bit of attention from visitors.